


nobody mourns her

by qynntessence



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-05-04 22:30:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5350763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qynntessence/pseuds/qynntessence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha dies quickly, easily, painlessly, in a car crash on the way home.</p><p>She wasn't supposed to go like this.</p><p>--</p><p>Natasha dies in an ordinary car crash. The people around her learn to handle it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. natalia alianovna romanoff (i)

Natasha dies quickly, easily, painlessly in a car crash on the way home.

What’s left of SHIELD, and there isn’t much, investigates as much as they can.

Coulson finally tells Clint he’s alive, if only so he can figure out what happened to his agent.

It wasn’t an assassination or a shooter or anything related to her line of work. It was a drunk driver, and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Clint thinks it’s a bitter sort of irony that such an extraordinary person died such an ordinary death. 

The news doesn’t spread. Natasha wouldn’t have wanted it to, would have wanted to still be frightened of her even after her death.

The next time the Avengers are called, a few days later, and she doesn’t show, the rumors start.

Clint punches through his TV.

Steve stays with Sam for a week, staring into space and shaking.

Sam can’t stop crying.

They all expected her to die early. She took risks and went on too many missions and was too sought after to not be dead already.

She wasn’t supposed to go like this.

Mundane.

Ordinary.

Natasha Romanoff’s death does not suit her.

After a month, the news comes out. The Black Widow is dead.

Nobody mourns her.


	2. anthony edward stark (i)

“Nat! Come look at this!” Tony’s voice is heard briefly over the speakers in her room before she hears the whirring of machinery.

“What do you want, Stark?” She yells back, but starts walking towards the elevator anyway, pulling on a black hoodie.

“I want you to test these for me.” He hands her the Widow’s Bites he took earlier, and she sighs audibly, but pulls them onto her wrists. 

“Am I supposed to test them on you, or…?” She asks, a smile creeping onto her face.

“Very funny, Romanoff. There are dummies in the corner, make sure they don’t shock you or something like that.” He’s not looking at her anymore, but fiddling with one of Clint’s bows, she notices, and she just rolls her eyes and tests out his new gadgets. Again.

“They’re fine, Tony. How long has it been since you slept?” She asks softly, noticing the bags under his eyes.

“Oh, you know, a couple of days. Haven’t eaten much either, but you know, world needs saving and all that.” He gives her a big grin, and she rolls her eyes.

“Go to sleep, Tony. And have a proper meal. These work well, but the power per shock isn’t worth the weight added; I can’t move fast enough.” She gives him an easy smile and then slinks out the door as the next AC/DC song starts playing.


	3. anthony edward stark (ii)

“Tony.” Sam’s voice reaches him through the hard rock blasting throughout the workshop. He turns down the music and points to his wings in a corner.

“They’re not done yet, Flyboy. I’m still trying to make them expand properly with the stuff you requested, and they’re not light enough- should be done in a few days.”

“Tony, that’s not- I don’t need- Tony.” The breaking in Sam’s voice is new, and Tony looks up to see tears streaming down his face.

“Tony, Natasha’s dead.” He manages to say, and then starts sobbing again. Tony has seen Sam upset, sure, and they’ve talked a lot about coming back from trauma, but this- this raw, open sadness is new not only in Sam, but in anyone Tony has ever known.

“No.” is the only thing he can think to say. “There’s no way. Nobody could kill her.”

“It was a car crash. They’re investigating, but they think it was an accident.”

Black Widow, brought down by something as normal as a fucking car?

“No.”

“It’s real, Tony.”

He takes a look at her Widow’s Bites, goes upstairs, eats a good meal, and sleeps.

He refuses to cry.

It doesn’t work.


End file.
